Blues

Chapter Twelve

"I'm not sticking around for this one," Nas announces.

"Wait for me in the warehouse," Adaline clinically instructs. "Take Savannah outside, find Laurencia, send Federico home and get out of daylight. Don't sit in the car. I'll be ten minutes."

"Ten minutes for all of this?"

"And whose bright fucking idea was it to call Federico?"

"I ran into him at a bar, and I told him the drugs were missing because I thought he might know this guy. Which he did, by the way. And could have settled all this without a murder if you hadn't--"

"Think long and hard about how you'd like to proceed, Nasrine, and if it doesn't involve you disappearing before you say another word you'll regret, I advise you to reconsider."

Nas has to admit, now, that she's just a little scared. "I'll be outside."

"Savannah," she calls after us as I silently attempt to escape with Nas.

"Yes, ma'am," I reply so quietly I barely hear myself.

"I'll take care of you tomorrow."

Given the events of the preceding twenty four hours, I know if that means she'll protect me, soothe me, reprimand me, beat me, or murder me. I decide not to opine.

"Yes, ma'am."

Nas puts a hand on my back and pushes me out the door before Adaline can threaten either of us a third time.

"Okay, what the fuck?" I say the moment we're out of earshot.

"Right? What does 'take care of you' mean?"

"Yes, Nas, that was very puzzling language, but I was referring to the part where she killed a man."

"Adaline's from the South," Nas rationalizes. "She has hunting in her blood."

"I wouldn't quite call that hunting," I breathlessly comment, trying hard not to vomit all over the concrete.

"No, of course not, but you do see how it escalates. Killing game by eight, killing for survival by thirteen, killing for greed by eighteen, killing for sport by twenty five."

"For sport?"

"How many people do you think Adaline's killed? A few?"

"She only told me about one," I say in shock and confusion.

"Forgive me, Nasrine," Fede says when we find him at the warehouse door. "I had no idea--"

"Of course you didn't," Nas interrupts. "None of us did. She's a witch, Fede, with wacky witch powers. That's not your problem."

"I hope you understand I have to go," he says. "It's best if I have no contact with any of you, at least for some time."

"How long?" Cia asks. "What do you mean some time?"

"You are in the best position to figure that out," he says. "Gauge how upset she is, how much is directed at me...I don't want it to get ugly. A few months, maybe more."

"¿Y ni siquiera me vas a llamar?"

"Mija, es que no te quiero perder."

"But you are losing me."

"This was a mistake, mija, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I should never have come."

"No, I shouldn't have come."

"This has nothing to do with you, Laurencia. This is between your mother and me."

"If I hadn't agreed to this, you never would've gone through with it. There was nothing in it for you. I know you just wanted to see me, and I wanted to see you, so I went along with it. It never would've happened if--"